Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby picked first by Team MacKinnon at NHL All-Star Weekend!

Starting point is 00:00:00 NHL All-Star weekend is here, and Pat and I are going to preview that. Plus take a look at how Sidney Crosby missed the NHL All-Star draft in the most Sydney Crosby way possible. That's coming up right after this. You're Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:38 I am one of your host, Hunter Hodes. you can follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Join me on my host, Patrick Damp. You can follow him on Twitter at Center for Wet, and you can follow these shows, Twitter, at LLO, Wondersworth Penguins. Of course, thank you all so much for making this your first listen slash watch today.

Starting point is 00:00:53 We are free and available on all platforms. And finally, today's episode is brought to you by Fandall Make Every Moment More. Right now, new customers get $200 in bonus bets. If your best bet of $5 or more wins, all you have to do is visit fandal.com slash locked on to get started. So, Pat, we've made it to the end of the week,

Starting point is 00:01:12 and that means it is all-star weekend for the NHL. The skills competition gets underway on Friday night. We'll get to that in just a second. And then the all-star game is on Saturday. You'll have two teams going up against each other for two games, and then the winner of those two games will play in the quote-unquote final. There is, for this game, you have team McDavid, team McKinnon, team Matthews, and team Hughes. In terms of the Penguins for this show, of course, Cindy Crosby was picked number one

Starting point is 00:01:37 overall by guess who, Nathan McKinnon, because of course their romance has to continue. That was awesome. But when I look at these four teams in general, and yes, people, I understand. The initial All-Star game in general is not very fun to watch. I think you have to be a massive sicko to watch all these games. I myself am a huge sicko, so I am going to be tuning in. Pat is going to be the same. And I'm sure a lot of you listening to this are going to be the same. But if you don't tune in, I'm not going to blame you because I know these games are very boring. But when I look up and down these rosters, it's hard not to see team McDavid as the favorite to win this. You have obviously Connor McDavid, Leon Dysidal, Connor Helibuck, David Palsernerick, Rasmus Dahlene, Robert Thomas, Sam Reinhardt, who's been a beast this year, Thomas Hartle, Nick Suzuki.

Starting point is 00:02:22 If this team doesn't win, I honestly kind of be a little surprised. It feels like that team is a little too stacked in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, we were talking before we hit record that, you know, it's hard. to pick against Team McDavid. You look at that roster, but then, you know, you kind of start looking at the rest of the rosters and it'll be a little bit more competitive than I think we expect. I mean, team McKinnon's funny just because his first pick was Sid, but there's still some talent there.

Starting point is 00:02:50 You've got Carill Caprizov, Sebastian Aho. In net, you've got Jeremy Swayman, who's been pretty darn good. The funniest thing to me is that there, McKinnon might be a psycho because look at some of the names he's got Sid playing with. He's got Tom Wilson with him. He's got Travis Kineckney with them. So caps and flyers are going to be sitting there on the roster with them. So might be a total sicko for that one. But the other team is to keep an eye on his team Matthews, because you've got the four Leafs on that team. And regardless of how you feel about the Toronto Maple Leafs this season, everybody on that roster is really good from the Leafs with obviously Austin Matthews. Then

Starting point is 00:03:33 you have Morgan Riley, William Neelander, and then that in Mitch Marner, because those four are just absolutely awesome. Like, I don't think, and I don't want to turn this into a love fest for the leaves, but I don't think Morgan Riley gets nearly the love he deserves. He's one of the better defensemen in the league. And you would think playing on the Toronto Maple Leafs, we'd hear all about them, but we rarely do. So that's another really good team.

Starting point is 00:03:56 And then obviously you have team Hughes, which they've got probably the best goal in the league right now in Thatcher Demko and then Nikita Kucharov, who has been just maybe the best player on earth this season. Yeah, I think for me, because Team Hughes and Team Matthews are going to be playing each other in that first game. And then you'll have Team McDavid versus Team McKinnon. I'm going to take Team McDavid to win that first one. And I think I'm going to actually lean Team Hughes to meet that team in the final. I know you're pretty big on Team Matthews. And I mean, you're right. They have all the least players on the team. Jake Ottinger is one. the best goalies in the league. Clinton Keller's been great this year. Matt Barzell.

Starting point is 00:04:35 But man, I look at Team Hughes. I mean, Quinn Hughes has been one of the best defense in the league. Pedersen's been amazing. Kutjurav, I think, has been the best player in the league this year, though you can easily make an argument for Nathan McKinnon. Kyle Connor's been great. Brady Kichuk is playing on a bad team. Yes, for Brat. Brock Besser has been awesome. J.T. Miller, Frank Petrano. I just like that team a little more, just a little more than Team Matthews. Obviously, I might get old takes exposed, but that's who I have in the final. for this one. But moving on a little bit to the skills competition, Pat,

Starting point is 00:05:06 that's what I think a lot of people come to this weekend for, because, you know, the games, they're fine, and people watch them. But I think more people watch the skills competition at this point compared to the All-Star game. And, you know, the skills competition, it's a bit different this year, which I think is going to make it a little more fun to watch.

Starting point is 00:05:22 I felt like the last couple of years, it was just getting a bit boring. No one was really having me fun with it. But this year, it looks like it's going to be pretty cool. You have round one, and each player that participates in it is going to compete in four of six events, whether that's fast. A skater, hardest shot, stick handling, one-timers, passing challenge, and accuracy shooting.

Starting point is 00:05:40 I think those are by far the best ones to include. Those have always been my favorite, at least to watch, growing up. And in the top eight point earners from round one combined, even though they're not going to be participating in all of them, they will advance to the seventh event, which is NHL one-on-one. Each player that advances will choose the goalie they will shoot against, and then following that shootout, the top six point earners will advance to the final round, which is an obstacle course where the point totals are doubled,

Starting point is 00:06:05 and then the winner gets a boatload of money. So this is going to be quite a lot of fun to watch. Again, I know it's All-Star Week, and it's not the greatest thing in the role, but I would still rather watch the Skills Competition compared to the All-Star Games in general. I do think the format this year looks a lot better compared to recent years. And again, for the first time in quite a while, I'm actually excited to see how the players do, because, you know, obviously they're going to goof off. They're going to have fun with it.

Starting point is 00:06:30 But they're bringing back competitions that a lot of fans have liked for so many years. That's what you've got to do for something like this. You don't want to, I guess, bombard the players with too many weird things like you did last year where there was some events that just didn't make any sense. Just bring back the OG events that people like watching and people will obviously tune in. And that's exactly what they did for this year. If you're not going to lean into the absurdity of the skills competition and have go for, you know, We all remember,

Starting point is 00:06:59 uh, Evgeny Malkin putting the hat, sunglasses and water bottle on Ovechkin. We remember last year when Crosby and Ovechkin teamed up for the little breakaway with Ove's son. If you're not going to lean into having fun with it and being silly, make it a competition. And that's what they did this year.

Starting point is 00:07:17 Million dollars on the line for it. Obviously not everybody is participating. Cid is not going to be a part of it. They have a set roster for this. It's not all of the. All-Star participants. So I like the fact that they are leaning into making it a competition and not just here we're going to screw around for three hours and all go home.

Starting point is 00:07:39 And there was also that event last year where a player, if you hit with the puck, the player gets dunked in water, right? I forget what the name of that event was, but no one really cared about it. And it's just like, don't bring those type of events to the skills competition. I get you wanted to try something new, but just bring back events that you know people enjoy. Yeah. And that's pretty much what they did. I mean, you have fastest skater, hardest shot, accuracy shooting, passing.

Starting point is 00:08:02 And that's the stuff that people want to see because you always look back at the guys like Shea Weber who would always hit 100 plus miles an hour slap shot. And those would always be fun to watch. And then you'd want to see the accuracy shooting and see like, okay, who's going to go four for four and do it fast? And then the breakaway thing, I like the added element that you can pick the goal that you want to shoot on. So you can see like, okay, like, how are these guys, the eight guys who are left at the end here? How are they going to try to advance themselves to win that million dollars?

Starting point is 00:08:35 Because again, making it a competition makes it more fun. Now, broadly the thing I want to say about the skills competition, the All Star Game in general, and I disagree with this as an overall tactic by the NHL, but I understand what they do with stuff like the All Star Game, the Winter Classic and the stadium series is they are fun events. And obviously us diehards are going to watch them. We're going to tune in and watch it because we love hockey and that's what we do. But they make these events more about the city that they're in in a celebration for that city

Starting point is 00:09:13 than they do for growing the sport, which I think is misguided. Because when you have unique events like a Winter Classic, like a skills competition and an All-Star weekend, it should be a celebration of the sport itself in a way to grow the game. And they just don't seem to want to do that anymore. I understand, you know, hockey is arguably the best live event in all of sports. It's significantly better in person than it is on TV. And it's still great on TV.

Starting point is 00:09:42 But they should use these weekends to put some of the biggest names at the forefront and really promote the hell out of it and say like, this is one of our best weekends. this is why you should watch hockey, similar to what we're going to talk about in the next segment with the Olympics, where you tell people like, hey, did you enjoy watching this guy, that guy? Well, guess what? 82 nights a year,

Starting point is 00:10:04 you can watch that guy and his team. And then you have the Stanley Cup playoffs, which everybody across all sports tells you that's the best playoffs in all of sports. Yeah, I agree with you. And I think even outside of the All-Star game and even the Olympics, which are going to get to in just a second, I feel like the NHL has really struggled with marketing their top play. for quite a while. It's something that they've just never gotten good at. And I agree with you.

Starting point is 00:10:27 It needs to change. But they are going to be marketing their players overseas because the NHL is officially going back to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. Thank God. And we're going to get into that in just a second. But before that, we got to tell you all about Fandul, which is America's number one sportsbook. If you're like me, Super Bowl Sunday is all about scoring the best seat on the couch, grabbing your favorite football snack and placing some super bets. Fandall has so many ways for you to end this season with the W or two or three. And not only can you bet on who will win the Super Bowl, but Fandall also has bets for which players will score a touchdown,

Starting point is 00:11:02 how many points will be scored, and so much more. New customers you can join today, and you will get $200 in bonus bets if your first bet of $5 or more wins. Just visit fandle.com slash locked on to sign up. That's fandle.com slash locked on. Make every moment more of Fandle and official sports book partner of the NF. All right, we're back here on this episode of the locked on Penguins podcast.

Starting point is 00:11:28 I'm one of your host, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host Patrick Dam. So outside of All-Star weekend being this weekend, then I'll announce some massive news regarding best-on-best international competition. They are going back to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. This will be the first time the NHL will send its players to the Olympics since 2014. Can you believe that, by the way? 10 years ago, man. That's just crazy.

Starting point is 00:11:52 I mean, I remember Canada was playing the U.S. I was a sophomore in high school, and it's funny, they were playing that game while I was in English class, and I was begging my teacher to put the game on after we finished our assignments. And she actually did, and I was just pacing back and forth like a madman. And that's just, that's what Olympic hockey is all about. You're cheering on your country. It's such high stakes. You get so nervous.

Starting point is 00:12:15 And I'm so excited that the league is going back. Now, granted, there is a non-zero chance that Gary Bettman could back out because, let's face it, Gary Bettman is not that good of a commissioner in the NHL, but for right now, there is an agreement in place to send the NHL players to the Olympics. And this is going to be awesome, man, because for Team USA right now, this is going to be the best Team USA of my lifetime.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And I know I'm only 26. I'm going to be 27 this year. I think by the time they play this tournament in 2026, I'm going to be almost 30, which is crazy to even think about. But this will be, I think, the best USA hockey team I've ever seen. And you can look at the talent that they'll have. Austin Matthews, Jack Eichol, Jack Hughes, Jake Gensel, Brady Kachuk, Matthew Kuchuk,

Starting point is 00:12:56 Jason Robertson, their top pairing could be Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox. I mean, I'm just, it's gorgeous to think about that type of team. And then in goal, you can go to either Jake Gautinger, you can go to Connor Hellebuck, you can go to Jeremy Swayman, Thatcher Demko. They have an edge in goal, I think, over almost every team in that tournament, especially over Canada. And I know Canada is very stacked it forward and on defense, but in goal, I'll take team USA's goal at least. But to see the Olympics coming back, it's honestly a dream come true, at least for the players going back to the Olympics, I should say.

Starting point is 00:13:32 That is a dream come true for me. It is. I know everybody loves the 1980 team in the story of it of, oh, it was college guys. But this is the every four year best on best tournament. You don't go to the Olympics because you have a sport as a hobby. You don't. It's now the best athletic competition on the planet. So you want to send your best players from your country's program.

Starting point is 00:14:03 And I mean, you look at Team USA, man. Like you beat me to the punch. The biggest difference is going to be goaltending because you have those three as your top three, Hellebuck, Demko, Ottinger. And I mean, how do you counter that? that. It's really difficult because those three, Hellebuck's been great for a long time. Demko's finally coming into his own as an elite goaltender in the NHL. And despite some struggles recently, Ottinger is still very, very good. And then you just look at the center depth alone.

Starting point is 00:14:32 Austin Matthews, Jack Hughes, Jack Eichael, Dylan Lark, and Tage Thompson. And then, you know, that doesn't get into a couple other guys that might get a snub like J.T. Miller. And then, I mean, you're right. This is the best. that it's looked in a really long time. And while obviously you're going to have your Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, even Sidney Crosby, I still would take Team USA at the Olympics at this point. And it would not be like a 2010 kind of team where you look at it and go,

Starting point is 00:15:06 well, a lot of talent there, but like they're just a good cohesive unit. Because if you remember, the 2010 team was good, but it wasn't like Canada. You looked at Canada. and it was an all-star team.

Starting point is 00:15:18 It was every great player in the NHL at that moment was mostly Canadian. And then the Team USA team just scrapped and clawed. But it was the same deal as I'm talking about now. They had Ryan Miller in goal. And Ryan Miller in that tournament might have been the MVP despite getting silver. The decision makers for Team USA just have to get this right. You can't build a team. the way you did, remember in 2016 for the World Cup of hockey there?

Starting point is 00:15:51 They just totally screwed up a decision making and it cost them big time because that team was not good enough to compete with most of those countries that they played against, to be honest. So just for Team USA, take the best players. This is the best pool of talent we've seen in quite a while. And I know Canada, I think, will have better forwards overall. Their defensive group is also very comparable to Team USA. but USA has the edge and goal.

Starting point is 00:16:18 And I think that might be enough for them to beat Canada. Maybe I have the copium here, but I think the U.S. could give them quite a fight in that tournament. Again, it will come down to goaltending because you look at the Canadian goaltenders right now. And there's some good ones there, but there isn't a truly elite goaltender that's Canadian right now. Aidan Hill, he was good, but he might be a flash in the pan. Jordan Bennington not that great anymore.

Starting point is 00:16:46 Cam Talbot is not that great. We have Tristan Jari, who has seemed to have a bounce back year, but he might start. He legitimately might start for them. And then you have Logan Thompson and maybe if Devin Levi turns into something. But you're right, though. The forwards are where Canada probably has the advantage when you got it. They could have, they legitimately could have in 2026, Sydney Crosby. on the fourth line. And he wouldn't be a fourth liner. But then, you know, again, you have

Starting point is 00:17:18 Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, you're going to have Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart. And there are a lot of really good players from Canada. I know I'm not breaking any ground with that. My X factor, looking at Canada, if he's still playing at a level he's been playing at, it's Mark Stone. Mark Stone at the Olympics, which they announced today during their announcement that the Olympic hockey will be played on NHL ice and not Olympic ice, you put Mark Stone in that environment with that kind of team. He's going to be dominant. Oh, absolutely. No, I agree with you on that. But before the Olympics, there will be a four nation face off next February. That's actually taking the place of the All-Star game next weekend, and which I'm actually excited about.

Starting point is 00:18:03 Even though I do think this whole thing is a little bit of a cash grab for those four nations, it sucks that there won't be other nations involved. It's still going to be better to watch this, to the All-Star weekend, in my opinion. And how this works, there's going to be seven games from February 20th to February 12th, to February 20th, 23-man rosters, three-game round-robin, and the top two teams from there will advance to a one-game winner-take-all finals. So that's pretty exciting. It'll be Team USA, Team Canada, Team Sweet and Team Finland.

Starting point is 00:18:34 The way I look at this, this is like a really nice appetizer to the main course. Say you go out to a nice restaurant, you're thinking, okay, I'm going to get an order of Kalamari or something like that. You're like, oh, okay, that was really good. That's going to hold me over to the main course, which is the Olympics, where you're going to have a nice steak dinner, maybe have some lobster mashed potatoes in there or whatever. That's what I'm looking at for those events where you have the Four Nation face off in the Olympics. It'll be interesting to see who the U.S. takes for that face off in 2025.

Starting point is 00:19:01 I assume it's going to be pretty close to the roster that they have in 2026. And I'll also be curious to see who coaches that team in 2025 and 26. If I had a guess right now, I think Mike Sullivan should coach. that team in 2025 and 2026. I think right now he's still one of the best coaches in the league. And yeah, I know Penguins fans are a good chunk of them are pretty down on him. But I don't think they're going to take anyone else to coach those USA teams. That's just my opinion. I think it's going to be Mike Sullivan. But still, I'm excited to watch that 2025 for Nation face off, even though, again, I think at the end of the day, it's a little bit of a cash grab. And I wish there

Starting point is 00:19:37 are more countries being involved there. But I'll still take that again compared to the All-Star weekend. I can't remember the timeline, and I'm sure commenters will remember because I can't remember who tweeted it. But I don't know if they're going to have, I think they're going to have a 2027 World Cup after the Olympics. And here's how I see this. I like the idea of doing the Four Nations thing next year as kind of a welcome back to international best on best in the hockey world. but they have to land the plane correctly in 2027, if that's, again,

Starting point is 00:20:15 if that's the year, where what you would do, in my opinion there, is you have to work closely with the I-IHF to actually make it a World Cup and have six, seven, maybe eight countries in it,

Starting point is 00:20:30 because obviously it's not the world championships. Obviously, it's not the Olympics. It's not the world juniors. but if you want to have a legitimate World Cup, the 2016 one was all well and fun. We all loved Team North America, U23, which was a ton of fun.

Starting point is 00:20:47 Don't get me wrong. Love that team. I watch that overtime winner game a lot because it was some of the best hockey I've ever seen played. Also, it is a 2028 World Cup and that I believe they're trying to be in 2032 as well. That's even better because then you have more lead time. But you should make this a legitimate World Cup. It should be multiple nations.

Starting point is 00:21:08 It should be obviously the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Russia, if they're allowed to participate, depending on what the IHF decides. You should have Sweden, Finland. And if there's a team that surprises in the Olympics or at the world championships over the next few years, get them in there as well. I know the NHL wants to make it more of an NHL marketing thing, but if you can expand your talent pool and get more eyes, and even have an underdog go on a run in this tournament,

Starting point is 00:21:39 it's going to grow your brand and your sport, especially if you're the one covering it. So I want to see an actual World Cup by then, obviously not actual because you're not going to have, you know, 20 teams and everything, but there should be close to 10 teams or more in this thing when it kicks off in 28. I agree.

Starting point is 00:21:56 And I think they'll be able to work out the kinks from the four nation face off next year heading into the Olympics where they should be fine. And then after that, there are any other kinks, I guess, there shouldn't be for the Olympics. You can fine-tune those as well for the World Cup of Hockey and then the next Olympics in 2030 and then the World Cup of hockey in 2032 as well. And you ask for Russia, the IAHF is going to make a decision on whether they're going to participate in the Olympics in 2026 at a later date. So we'll have to see what happens with that when it comes to of getting Malkin from the Penguins and then obviously

Starting point is 00:22:27 all the other Russian players in the NHL as well. But exciting times, best on best competition is coming back. First time the NHEL is going to the Olympics in 12 years and it'll be the first best and best international competition in 2025 for the first time in nine years. So we should have had this quite a few times I feel like between 2016 and now. But Pat, I'm just glad that we're getting this once again because this is so much fun to watch. It's huge because it really is the best hockey because. And you can get new people who don't really follow the NHL into this more. I remember when I was in high school. The last time the NHL went to the Olympics, people were watching that game on my English class going like, wow, this is actually quite a lot of fun to watch. I'm like, yeah, you should see

Starting point is 00:23:09 these players play in NHL. This gets casual fans into your league considering what they're going to do on an international competition. Well, I always point to the 1992 dream team from Team USA that had all the NBA stars in it. And obviously, that's a little bit different because basketball's in the summer Olympics. That's the off season. But they didn't send those guys. over there just because the main purpose obviously was to get Team USA a gold. But the main reason they were there was to make basketball in the NBA a global brand for people who aren't in the United States and Canada, more bigger fans of the NBA. And that's what that team went over there and did.

Starting point is 00:23:51 Along with being the best team on the court and winning a gold medal, basically sleepwalking to it, they were ambassadors throughout that whole Olympic event. They were in the public eye almost the entire time. And it got people interested in watching the NBA when it came back. And you can do something very similar with the Winter Olympics. And I know owners and GMs don't want their players to get hurt in season. It's a totally understandable concern. But that's a short-term worry when you can make a long-term gain.

Starting point is 00:24:26 Because we all know, outside of figure skating in the Winter Olympics, hockey is what everybody watches. It's the most popular event. So I'm pretty sure the last event of the Winter Olympics is the men's hockey gold medal game. So if that's the case, as the NHL, you should look at that as this is our chance to send our guys over there and build our brand and make them ambassadors and get more people who might not otherwise watch the NHL start to watch the NHL. And then when you do that, other countries start getting. getting interested in hockey. They start building hockey programs.

Starting point is 00:25:02 And all of a sudden you have guys from countries you never expected coming to play in the National Hockey League. You couldn't have said it any better, to be honest. It just makes all the sense in the world for so many reasons. And I'm just glad that we're getting this back. But I'll do it for the second segment. Coming up to end the show, Sydney Crosby, who was going to play in the All-Star game on Saturday, skipped the draft on Thursday, even though he was taken number one by Nathan

Starting point is 00:25:25 McKinnon, but it was in the most Sydney Crosby way possible. Pat and I could discuss that. right after this. All right, we're back here on this episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I am one of your hosts, Hunter Hodes, joined by my co-host, Patrick Dam. So, instead of Cindy Crosby being at the All-Star Draft on Thursday, where was he? Oh, he was getting an escape in Montana before the All-Star game outdoors, just preparing for the quote-unquote unofficial second half of the NHL regular season, making sure that he is ready

Starting point is 00:25:57 to go as the Penguins really get their playoff push into high gear after the third. week this weekend because the penguins will be back in action on Tuesday against the win of peg jets as i've said it 5 000 times already on the show that is the most sydney crosbie thing possible to be honest i mean and the thing i will say that was really really awesome and i think that you know similar to taking the skate in montana it speaks to the guy that sidney crosbie is when he was drafted obviously he's not there he's in montana doing whatever it is he's doing away from skating. There was a little Timbitts player in his jersey that got to go accept being drafted onto that team. And that kid got to skate up to Nathan McKinnon, excuse me, and represent Sidney Crosby.

Starting point is 00:26:45 And you know he had a hand in that because he is very much involved with Timbitts hockey. So that was a really cool gesture by him. No, I agree with you. And seeing the look on that kid's face when he got to come out after said got ticked that was just awesome to say the least but but the montana thing and in you you would think like oh he goes out to a place like montana where it's going to be very cold and mountainous and he can skate outside he's going to be enjoying this with his girlfriend and family nope there he is full gear he's skating laps he's stick handling through pox he's working on his shot release taking one timers it was just it was the most crosbie thing ever that's that's that's someone who

Starting point is 00:27:30 Again, it's just, I think, addicted to the sport at this way. I mean, you have to be. You're a professional hockey player. But the fact that you're not at the draft and you're doing that, I mean, in a way, kind of shows where his priorities are at this point in the season. I mean, yeah, he's probably at least a little bit excited about going to the All-Star festivities. But he's definitely a lot more invested in getting this team back to the playoffs after the Penguins missed last year, to say the least. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:54 And I kind of love that in a sort of subtle way. he's saying by doing that he's like listen i know i have to be here but i will be there when i have to be there i'm not going a second earlier a sick part of me just wants him to like quote unquote skip it but then i think you have don't you have that one game suspension that you would have to if you did skip it at as far as i know if you skip the all star game without an injury you are suspended for the first game back out of the break so he would be suspended ended on Tuesday against the Jets and they kind of need him against that team. Yeah, they kind of need him for that game considering how good Winnipeg is this year.

Starting point is 00:28:38 So again, I know a sick part of me wants him to not go, but again, he kind of has to because the Penguins have to bank points after the All-Star race to say the least. But unless you have anything else to add on Cindy Crosby, just being himself in Montana, I think that I'll do it for this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. Thank you all so much for taking the time to listen to slash watch this episode. Pat and I will be back with another show for you all on Monday to get you all set for the game against the Jets. And we'll get you all set for the games next week in general, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

Starting point is 00:29:08 and Friday, this team will finally be back in action as the full race to the playoffs begins this next week, guys. It's going to get good. February, it's a little light on games, but the Penguins, I think, will take that considering how busy March is going to get. Hey, buckle up and join us, Penguins fans. We are going to go on a fast and bumpy. ride to the Stanley Cup playoffs. So we hope you'll join us for it. This is going to be fun.

Starting point is 00:29:34 And I know if they make the playoffs, we'll have some great playoff content for you all as well. But again, thank you all so much for tuning in. We really appreciate it. We'll be back with another episode for you all on Monday.

Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Penguins Captain Sidney Crosby picked first by Team MacKinnon at NHL All-Star Weekend!

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.